Gov. Steve Bullock has been busy lately. Seems like every day the IR has a story about him speaking to a group of people, or providing a quote about a particular news announcement. Just the other day he took advantage of one of the recreation opportunities that make Montana popular with its residents and took an afternoon hike with some of Montana’s business leaders.

But he is governor after all and in a state with such a small population, such as Montana, the governor is asked to do a lot of things.

In all of Bullock’s recent appearances that have been covered by Montana’s media, what seems to be missing is any mention of politics. He’s not making speeches about Democratic proposals, or berating Republican policies or ideas. He seems to be focused on one thing, promoting Montana and its people.

The Governor was in the Magic City Thursday for the Montana Department of Transportation Billings District’s 100th anniversary.

Governor Bullock stopped by the Bench Boulevard project. He says projects like these create jobs and show growth in the area. Workers gave Bullock an update on the project. The project’s phase one costs $4 million.

“This is part of a long term strategy to say how can we take the largest city in Montana and make it that much more efficient and effective,” Governor Bullock said. “So we want to make sure that we’re partnering at the local level, at the county level, and with the communities to have the best products possible.”

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney on Tuesday announced a $35 million expansion of its Helena manufacturing site and the hiring of 20-25 more employees there.

McNerney made the announcement surrounded by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus and Gov. Steve Bullock at the Montana Economic Development Summit at Montana Tech in Butte.

The expansion will add 55,000 square feet of manufacturing space, increasing the size of the Boeing Helena facility near the Helena Regional Airport by about one-third, to 167,099 square feet. Construction will begin on the south side of the current facilities, and it is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014.

“We do take great pride in the operations in Montana,” McNerney said, with the largest being its fabrication plant in Helena.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock will meet today with representatives from Montana businesses listed in Outside Magazine’s ranking of the nation’s top employers.

Businesses invited to meet with the governor include two from Whitefish — River Design Group and ZaneRay Group. Other Montana firms on Outside’s list are Adventure Life of Missoula, Outlaw Partners of Big Sky, Ecology Project International of Missoula, Seeley Lake Elementary School and MercuryCSC of Bozeman.

After the meeting, the governor will join business leaders on a hike up Mount Helena, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The governor and business leaders will talk about the benefits of doing business in Montana as well as highlighting efforts to expand their companies, the important role that Montana’s outdoor heritage plays in their businesses and innovative methods they’ve used to recruit and retain employees.

For the past few weeks Governor Steve Bullock has traveled the state visiting students on his Back-to-School Tour.

Now that he is back in the Queen City, the governor called a meeting with members of his Cabinet to discuss education, and ways to improve it for Montana’s students.

“Everybody here at the table too in the professional capacities has a role to ensuring that we have a quality education and every kid has an opportunity.”

Bullock addressed some of his top priorities regarding education, including early childhood education and increasing graduation rates. Each Cabinet member presented various statewide programs and efforts that have been implemented to help improve Montana’s education system. Bullock’s Budget Director, Dan Villa says the governor helped secure primary education funding for the future by passing Senate Bill 175 this past session.

With some rebuilding still going on, the damage from the storm in July is clearly visible. Despite that, Monday was a day of celebration because of the grand re-opening of this unique site.

“You’re back open for business with this grand opening, that you can wander through the museum, you can visit the old governor’s residence you can see the old school and yes the merry-go-round is still alive and in existence,” Governor Bullock said.

“This is our first territorial capitol here and this place means so much to Montana’s past and to Montana’s future,” Chas Van Genderen said. “School children are here today panning for gold, learning about Montana’s history and we’re just really excited.”

Last week, as I sent my own kids off to school, I also returned to the classroom—this time with a different purpose. From Browning to Billings, I have spent the past two weeks meeting with students, parents and educators, encouraging them to work hard this school year, and make Montana proud.

My time in Montana’s schools serves as both a refresher of the many good things happening in our public schools, and as a source of inspiration to work with our schools, communities and legislature to further improve our education system.

That inspiration doesn’t come just from visiting a classroom, however. It also comes every time I meet with a businessman or woman. They consistently tell me that the most important thing we can do to improve the economic opportunities for Montanans is to improve our educational opportunities.

We all have an interest in the quality of our educational system. It will take all of us — students, parents, educators, public policy makers and community members — to further improve our schools.

Gov. Steve Bullock brought his statewide education tour to the University of Montana on Friday, continuing his push to bolster early childhood learning and get more degrees into the hands of adults.

After stopping at UM-Western in Dillon and the early learning center in Hamilton, Bullock toured the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education and Human Sciences at UM to discuss learning in Montana.

“I’d like to see us do more before a student gets to kindergarten – early childhood education,” Bullock said. “We need to recognize that kids learn in different ways these days.”

Bullock’s tour explored the growing role technology plays in education, and included a stop at the Montana Digital Academy – a statewide Internet tool that helps students make up course credits and access advanced classes.

After seeing the successful partnership between Bozeman High and Gallatin College, Gov. Steve Bullock wants all Montana students to have a chance to gain college credit and experience before they graduate from high school.

On Thursday, Bullock spent a few hours in Bozeman learning more about Gallatin College and the part it plays in the high school’s dual enrollment program.

The stop was part of the governor’s “Back to School Tour,” on which he visited 15 schools around the state that are working on innovative programs to encourage students to graduate and continue their educations after high school.

In his State of the State address in January, Bullock set a goal of having 60 percent of Montanans earn a college degree within the next decade.